Aircraft Manufacture in West Essex
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AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE IN WEST ESSEX AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE Each of the known aircraft types constructed in the area, including Avro Triplane; Deekay Knight; Edgar Percival EP9; Gordon Dove; early Handley Page designs; Napier autogyro; Sprint [SAH-1], Tawney Owl; Foster Wicko Wikner. ROE 1 TRIPLANE Early in 1909 Alliott Verdon Roe, A. V. Roe, recently evicted from premises situated at Brooklands, set to designing a new aeroplane based upon a tri-plane layout. During his time at Brooklands this famous aviation pioneer had designed and built the unsuccessful Roe 1 Biplane, a type which failed to take to the air under the power of its 6hp engine. Components for his new design of flying machine were manufactured in Putney as Roe sought a new site from which he might fly the completed machine in due course. He eventually found a site on Walthamstow Marshes by the River Lea offering a suitable workshop space located within the arches under the Great Eastern Railway line from Chingford to Liverpool Street. Roe started to build two similar aeroplanes of his own design at Walthamstow in March 1909. The finished machine was designed for a 10hp engine driving a forward, 'tractor' drive, propeller and being fitted with two sets of triple wings joined together by a triangular section fuselage. The undercarriage consisted of two bicycle wheels fitted under the front wings and a third, smaller, bicycle wheel under the rear fuselage and in front of the rear wings. When finished it featured an overall coat of yellow varnish, which was to earn it the name of ‘Yellow Peril’, this being surmounted by the painted words ‘Bullseye’ and ‘Avroplane’. The former name was in recognition of sponsorship provided by his brother Humphrey's Manchester based company which marketed gentlemen's trouser braces under that trade mark. The Roe 1 Triplane started taxi trials after the fitting of the 6hp engine in April of that year. This was the same engine as that fitted to the unsuccessful Biplane. At the end of May a new 9hp J.A.P. engine offering more power arrived and was fitted to the Triplane and from June 5 a number of short flights were undertaken from the Walthamstow Marshes. These ranged up to 50 feet in length and little more than 3 feet in height. On Friday July 23 1909 Roe undertook three flights at about 10 feet height and ranging up to 900 feet in distance. With these he became the first to fly an all British aeroplane with a British engine over British soil. In the October Roe took both of the Triplane's to a flying meeting in Blackpool and neither appears to have returned south before Roe was evicted from his workshops on the lea Marshes later in the year, future AVRO aircraft production moved to Manchester. The meeting in Blackpool ended the active flying life of the first aircraft, it made an appearance at an aero exhibition held at Belle Vue Gardens, Manchester in January 1914 and then went back into store until it was presented to the Science Museum in 1925. It remains on exhibition there today. Span: 20 feet 0 inches Speed: 25mph Length: 23 feet 0 inches ©2010 North Weald Airfield Museum Authored by BEE AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE IN WEST ESSEX ©2010 North Weald Airfield Museum Authored by BEE AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE IN WEST ESSEX Image via Aeroplane Deekay Knight; A small hire company operating out of Broxbourne Aerodrome changed its name from Anderson Aerocars Ltd., to Deekay Aircraft Corporation in October 1936 following the death of Lionel Anderson in a West Country air crash. Under J. McEwan King the newly named company started to involve itself in plastic components for aircraft, the emergence of the Deekay Knight was the result of a need to build an aircraft around a proposed plastic aircraft wing. The Knight was an ultra light, two seat, low wing monoplane with a fixed undercarriage. Powered by an 85hp Cirrus Minor which was expected to propel the light aircraft at a cruising speed of 125mph, the design was primarily aimed at testing of the structure. The first flight of the type was much delayed by the slowness in gaining the approval of the plastics at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. As a result it was an all wooden Knight aircraft, registered G-AFBA, that made its first flight in November 1937. The company had intended to progressively change the aircraft structure from wood to plastic, but with the onset of war this plan was dropped in favour of the company undertaking a greater, and more profitable, stake in the new field of general plastics manufacture. As the company was in effect no longer a manufacturer of aircraft there was little to stop the inevitable and the remains of the sole Knight aircraft were burned during the war. The little aeroplane became, in effect, a victim of the very technology it was intended to promote. The company again changed its name, to Aeroplastics Ltd., to reflect its new aims in manufacture and had moved to Glasgow by December 1939. Span: 31 feet 3 inches Speed: 125mph Length: 22 feet 10 inches ©2010 North Weald Airfield Museum Authored by BEE AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE IN WEST ESSEX Edgar Percival EP9; The Edgar Percival Aircraft Ltd. was established at Stapleford Aerodrome in 1954. Captain Edgar Wikner Percival, an Australian by birth, had come to the United Kingdom to fly with the Royal Flying Corps during the Great War. He served for a time with No. 60 Squadron before taking up the post of flying instructor at Aboukir. He joined civil aviation in Australia as an aircraft operator in 1926, winning several races and competitions. One of these was a race for the Herald Cup at Melbourne in June 1923, undertaken in a Boulton Paul P9 G-AUCP. After coming to Britain in 1926 he became a well-known freelance test, racing and sporting pilot. He went on to design the pre-war Percival Gull series of light aircraft, mainly produced at Luton, and culminating in the Proctor. He severed his ties with the company, it eventually being swallowed up by the British Aircraft Corporation but even jet aircraft were being designed as Percival’s there. The production line [Aeroplane] Edgar undertook the Stapleford enterprise both as a personal re-entry into aviation and in order that the fruits of his design would be built to his satisfaction. He designed the P9; a name later changed to the EP9, himself and piloted the prototype, G-AOFU, on its 20-minute maiden flight on December 21st 1955. He followed this by undertaking all the subsequent test flying. It is a matter of conjecture whether the original name reflected his 1923 flight in the Boulton Paul aircraft or was merely coincidence. Aimed directly at the Australasian market, the design of the EP9 incorporated an unusual pod and boom configuration fuselage that facilitated a number of demanding role and aerodynamic factors. A deep front fuselage, capable of accommodating a one ton capacity fertiliser hopper in the type's primary role, allowed for the carriage of four passengers, three stretcher cases and awkward loads behind the high set two seat pilots cabin. Among the loads it was envisaged that the EP9 would be able to ©2010 North Weald Airfield Museum Authored by BEE AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE IN WEST ESSEX carry were standard size bales of wool, straw, 45-gallon oil drums and even livestock. A large clamshell door provided access to the rear of the cabin. Percival planned the production of at least 60 aircraft. By late 1956 twenty complete aircraft had been produced at Stapleford, with examples being exported, mainly to the expected Australian market, and a pair of examples shown to the military. The production facilities at Stapleford were capable of a potential output of a maximum of 10 airframes a month, a capacity that was never called upon. Substantial sections of aircraft 39 and 40 were on the production line at Stapleford early in 1957; neither EP9 flew until the following year. After demonstrating one of his aircraft to the Army Air Corps at Middle Wallop the Army became interested in the type and in 1958 c/n 38 and 39 took up military registrations (XM797 and XM819) and were delivered for testing at the A&AEE Boscombe Down, Wiltshire. Both of these aircraft featured the most up to date production standard modifications and additionally featured underwing bomb racks allowing a standard 350lb stores container to be carried each side. These were allowed 500lb in an overload condition. Within the cabin two stretchers and an attendant, or 700lb of freight, could be carried as standard, with 1,000-lbs. overload. Air dropping was possible with the rear clamshell doors removed. In the end the Percival failed to impress the military and the substantial Army contract went to the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. At the end of 1958 Edgar sold out his 80% interest in the enterprise to Samlesbury Engineering Ltd. The deal included a number of completed machines and parts of 20 in production. A total of 21 machines were recorded as built and completed at the Stapleford factory. From 1960 the materials were transferred to Squires Gate [Blackpool] where the company was renamed Lancashire Aircraft Co. The EP9 itself was renamed the Prospector. The transfer of production was not a success, only a handful of extra machines were built afterwards. Span: 43 feet 6 inches Length: 29 feet 6 inches Speed: 128mph Range: 580 miles Weight: 3,550 Ibs. EP-9 production Up to c/n 40 were built at Stapleford.